Which drive designation for FSX?

[TenBlade]

What´s the deal with Win 7 creating a Program Files (x86) folder on your designated drive and putting FSX in there? Does that reduce performance in some way? Is it better to create an FSX folder directly on your target drive? And if, why?

Bjorn

[GrahamP]

Hi  Bjorn,

It's best to put FSX on a separate drive (you can choose where when you install it).  This is so that FSX doesn't have to search through non-FSX files when looking for textures, etc., so it gets to what it wants quicker, hence smoother operation.  Also make sure to properly defrag.

Graham

[Guest J van E]

Yes, I do think it's better to install FSX in another directory (not necessarily another drive, but that depends on what kind of drive you have), because installing it in that Program Files (x86) folder can sometimes lead to issues with rights (files which can't be overwritten and things like that).

However, I don't understand why you say 'what's the deal with Win 7', because afaik FSX is always installed in the Program Files folder by default, like every program. And as always you can change that path to your liking.

[TenBlade]

Thanks, I got it on a separate drive.

"The deal with win 7" is just that; it creates a Program Files (x86) folder, and that seems to be non-desireable from what I´ve read, but I haven´t come across a sound argument until now 

Next time I re-install I will try to create a designated folder, thanks guys!

[John Bosch]

FSX is better on a seperate and dedicated drive, but not because of any privilege or sorting issues. Inside your hard drive is a spinning platter read by a head somewhat like the old needle head on a record player. However, this head has the ability to move back and forth over a platter that has concentric rings of data rather than the single spiral of an old LP. For every bit of data that is read the head has to move in or out to position itself over the correct concentric ring and then wait for the right bit of data to spin by underneath and be read.

Now, imagine several programs all trying to access the disk at once. The poor head is flying back and forth trying to service everybody's needs. If FSX is on a physical drive all of its own then it has sole control of the head for that drive. That means the head isn't being stolen and moved about by other applications.

Another performance improvement comes from defragging. If the data of a file (a texture say) is scattered about the hard drive the disk head has to fly about again to get all the bits read. Defragging gets all of the file's data together again and the head doesn't have to move about much to read the whole file.

I hope that helps!

[Guest J van E]

FSX is better on a seperate and dedicated drive, but not because of any privilege or sorting issues.

Better yet: install it on an SSD! That's why I added 'not necessarily another drive, but that depends on what kind of drive you have' to my post. I have Windows 7 together with FSX on an SSD and life has never been that good.

And btw about the privilege issues: there really can be issues when you install certain programs in the default Program Files folder! It's a known fact. I seem to recall some people had problems with FSX in that folder, but I myself had problems with the TrackIR software when it was installed as default: reinstalling it in another folder solved the problems instantly.